Well I guess I need to eat my words, I played a couple high-end Larivees at Elderly today and they were real nice. They weren't cheap, though. Neither was the $7K Brazilian Collings I played. Man, you can't turn around in that place without bumping into a $5,000.00 guitar. Martins and Taylors galore...
I played a Tacoma built D-55 for awhile, it was really sweet all around. A little muddy on the low end though it will probably open up nicely. Excellent workmanship & feel, price tag of $2k.
A GAD-50 sounded pretty nice, but they want like $879.00 for these now. I know nothing about nitro vs. poly finishes, but I do know what makes my eyes and ears happy. They had a slew of GADs, and they're using a wide variety of woods but the finishes seem duller than nitro. I think their new sunburst looks particularly cheap compared to the old Guild nitro burst & high gloss finishes. When you can still get vintage Westerly built dreads in great condition for the same price as a Chinese version, my choice is obvious.